Saturday, March 30, 2013

Canned Tuna and Coconut stir fry

Trying to incorporate healthy foods in our family of three is a challenge I always have fun with. I have been weary to try canned grocery as they are notorious for their sodium content as well as other additives. Some of them though have been a staple in my kitchen after I tried them after much scrutinisation.

I am not a purist when it comes to cooking.I am all for easy to make, semi homemade, quickie cooking too as long as it doesnt make me compromise too much on the taste, nutrition value, and ofcourse the price :-)

After a chat with one of my friends who suggested that I need to have a section on "Bachelor cooking", I decided this is the perfect dish to start this section. I will be posting such dishes from time to time.

Canned Tuna was something I loathed when my better half bought it the first time years ago. As I told you in a previous post, he has this habit of picking up something new whenever he does the grocery shopping.

I was so fascinated reading the label on it where it tells about the omega 3 goodness in the canned tuna. Not to mention, the additional good things that I found after a thorough google search.Apparently canned tuna are one of the best foods that can be stocked during an emergency. But all in vain once I opened the can....since the whiff made me trash the entire can.

Fast forward to present..... I am eager to incorporate seafood into my munchkin's diet, since it's good in terms of nutrition value. I am not good at filleting fish or have the time to clean and cook seafood from scratch. Hence I decided to put the canned tuna to test. I added flavor enhancers and maskers to not make it taste like it came out of a can and I have to say it's now a hit with my boy and his dad :-)

Drain the water from the tuna can like this as shown in photo below. It's the most effective way.

Then transfer the tuna into a bowl. Add all the spices and a pinch of salt (not the amount to actually season, just a pinch for the flavors to mix), and grated coconut and mix well with a fork.

In a frying pan or saute pan on medium heat, heat oil, a pinch of salt and hing (i like to flavor my oil with salt before hand since i feel it adds flavor) add shallot, and ginger. Saute until they brown lightly. Then lower heat to medium low, add 1 teaspoon garam masala, stir well say for a minute, then add the tuna mixture. Saute while breaking the mixture so as to mix everything well with the shallot and ginger. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon garam masala, and stir well, check for salt at this point. Keepimg heat at medium low, cover pan and let it cook for a minute.Lower the heat open the cover, stir for 15 seconds. Do a taste test if you are like me (while my boy says "meetth na" meaning not enough salt, even before he tastes anything these days, as he sees me taste testing :-P ). Switch off.

This goes well with a rice and dal combo since it makes a great stir fry with immense flavor of the ginger, tuna, and spices.